


Conversation

by Davechicken



Series: The Pilot and his Knight [26]
Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-18
Updated: 2016-04-18
Packaged: 2018-06-03 03:32:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 676
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6594883
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Davechicken/pseuds/Davechicken
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Poe's birthday... Kylo has plans.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Conversation

**Author's Note:**

  * For [poetdameron](https://archiveofourown.org/users/poetdameron/gifts), [Themes_of_November](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Themes_of_November/gifts).



Poe Dameron is the perfect boyfriend. He’s kind of the perfect everything, which can be a little irritating. Kylo is actually alarmed by how even his flaws seem to be some kind of virtue in excess. He’s not really petty, he’s usually calm and patient, he’s infinitely approachable and ridiculously thoughtful. 

He’s a benchmark. Like, some sort of ridiculous poster-child for _everything_. And although Poe always tells him he doesn’t have to match his endless, soul-bruisingly good romantic gestures… well.

Kylo is _not_ good. Kylo is, instead, a competitive little shit. And the proud parent of a whole field full of inadequacy issues, ranging from ‘not attractive enough’ to ‘can’t fly’ via ‘also went evil for over a decade and was responsible for genocide’. One of these things is not like the others.

So now Poe has started Giftmageddon, and Birthdaypocalypse, Kylo is _honour-bound_ to escalate the arms race. And go… well. _Starkiller_? Why don’t the ‘good guys’ ever have a superweapon he can use in mental analogies? It’s a distinct failure of them, and he wonders if he can petition his mother to build one without sounding like he’s actually trying to stage an evil coup. ( _But mother, I need it for my internal monologue!_ )

Kylo has spent a month organising his response. Rey and Finn (under penalty of Force-lightning that he can’t actually do) have been drafted in to help with the meal. He can’t out-do home-made and decorated cake, so instead he’s researched Poe’s homeworld cuisine and taught himself how to make a slap-up three-course meal. There’s a lovely bottle of expensive whiskey, casked in the year they met. A playlist of meaningful songs ready, and a bunch of candles. 

He is pretty sure he’s now gone way overboard and into ridiculousness, like… this is overkill, or something. Maybe it looks like he’s tried too hard? Or that he’s being ignorant and unappreciative of Poe’s efforts or…

Rey keeps telling him to stop second-guessing everything. That’s like saying _stop breathing_.

The gift, though… he thinks he did well with that. 

Poe has all the material goods he needs, and you don’t want to get something that won’t be used. So… 

First is a slightly silly thing of a bright orange bathrobe. It’s fluffy. It’s ridiculously fluffy. It screams Poe. It just said ‘buy me’, so Kylo did. He kept it hidden for months, fighting the impatient urge to just _give it to him anyway_. 

The second is more personal. Poe’s always idolised his mother, and Kylo knows why. So, with a little abuse of his family connections… he’s collected all the reports and records and recommendations and medals and official documentation on his mother’s service for the Rebellion. Quite a bit of it was classified until very recently ( _very recently_ ), and he’s collated them all in a holo. There’s small video sections, group holo pictures, audio recordings and the details of her ship and astromech. It’s… it’s just… more. More memories for him.

Kylo had a box made, specially. He found a tree that the Wookies revere for memories, and had his Uncle Chewie carve a small box. From the holos, her helmet insignia are painstakingly etched into the wood, and when the box opens, the holo-record automatically plays. 

With a little help from Kes, he even got a brief snatch of a personal holo-vid of her speaking a message into the camera. “Hello, Poe, it’s Mom. I miss you. I love you.” Okay. Maybe it is a bit too schmoopy.

He… he hopes he’ll like it. He hopes it isn’t too much, or… that he hasn’t over-stepped the boundary. Kylo remembers Shara, and he thinks she would approve. Poe will have his personal memories, but this is the work-mother that Kes is somewhat bitter about losing, even now.

Poe is due home any minute now. Kylo holds the box inside the bathrobe, and waits. 

He fidgets, but he has to stay strong.

 _It isn’t a war_ , he thinks, this exchange of tokens. _It’s a conversation_. And one he hopes will never end. 


End file.
